Kamienica Pod Złotą Koroną, Wrocław

Kamienica Pod Złotą Koroną is a protected townhouse on the eastern side of Wrocław’s Market Square, marked by a golden crown at its corner. Its site has hosted a house since the fifteenth century, while the present reconstruction was completed in 1960 after wartime destruction.

Kamienica Pod Złotą Koroną is the townhouse at Rynek 29, on the eastern side of Wrocław’s Market Square. Notice the golden crown set at its corner: it gives the house its name and keeps a very old identity visible in the rebuilt cityscape. A house has stood on this plot since the fifteenth century.

In 1521, the Cologne merchant Johan von Holtz bought it and began a major remodelling that introduced an early form of Silesian Renaissance architecture, shaped by Italian quattrocento ideas. The work continued until 1528, when its richly carved stone entrance was completed. That earlier house was demolished in 1904 and replaced by the Goldene Krone department store, a modern, fire-conscious commercial building with large display windows, lifts, and two thousand square metres of selling space.

War destroyed it completely in 1945, leaving only its steel framework, stairwell, and parts of the ground floor. Between 1957 and 1960, architect Zbigniew Politowski rebuilt the present house in the spirit of its pre-1906 predecessor. Ceramic decoration, including the crown, was added to the façades in 1959 or 1963. The building is protected as a provincial historic monument.